


Your love has come home (And so has your worst enemy)

by clefairytea



Series: Peaks and Valleys Adjacent [8]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon (Main Video Game Series), Pocket Monsters: Sun & Moon | Pokemon Sun & Moon Versions
Genre: Clefairy's Holiday Fic Request Fest, F/F, M/M, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-17
Updated: 2019-12-17
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:54:23
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,621
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21837043
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clefairytea/pseuds/clefairytea
Summary: “Lillie’s coming back!”Hau practically couldn’t keep both feet on the floor. The second he’d torn open the letter he’d taken one look at it and tossed it into the air, whooping and swinging Moon around by her arm.Moon knew she should be just as happy. In fact, she’d be happier. Yet for some reason all that happened was a cold pit of dread opened in her stomach, everything else falling through.Seeing Lillie was going to be hard, after all this time, but that wasn’t what made her feel so cold.The problem was who Lillie would bring with her.--Lillie is coming back to Alola. Moon isn't sure how to feel about it.
Relationships: Implied Lilie | Lillie/Mizuki | Selene, Ookido Green | Blue Oak/Red
Series: Peaks and Valleys Adjacent [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1200031
Comments: 22
Kudos: 569





	Your love has come home (And so has your worst enemy)

**Author's Note:**

> Another anon request on Tumblr!
> 
> Moon is 14 and gay and traumatised and kind of a mess in this. She's trying really hard, guys.
> 
> Warnings for discussions of trauma, being triggered, not exactly self-harm but like...self-destructive dangerous behaviour.

“Lillie’s coming back!”

Hau practically couldn’t keep both feet on the floor. The second he’d torn open the letter he’d taken one look at it and tossed it into the air, whooping and swinging Moon around by her arm.

Moon knew she should be just as happy. In fact, she’d be happier. Yet for some reason all that happened was a cold pit of dread opened in her stomach, everything else falling through.

Seeing Lillie was going to be hard, after all this time, but that wasn’t what made her feel so cold.

The problem was who Lillie would bring with her.

“I’m so excited, we haven’t seen her in years,” Hau chattered on, oblivious as always to Moon’s taciturn responses. “Do you think she’ll look much different?”

Hau did. He’d grown a little taller and much wider, starting to take after his grandpa in stature. They’d done wrestling in PE in the past year at school, and it turned out Hau was really good at it.

Moon wasn’t sure if she looked much different. Which was a bit sad – most people looked pretty different at 14 than at 11. She’d cut her hair short, she guessed, and her throne up at the Pokémon League wasn’t quite as big for her as it used to be. She would probably take after her Dad – a little below average, by Kantonian standards. Tiny, by Alolan standards.

She thought of Lillie’s mother, and wonder if Lillie looked like that now – tall and elegant and sharp as a knife.

“Maybe,” she replied, offering Hau a smile even as it felt like her knees would buckle under her.

****

Lillie had won a championship title in Kanto. Age 12 – not the youngest Kanto champion (that was still Red) – but still in the top ten.

Moon had watched the match on television, staying up until the early hours to see it live. Hau had invited her around – he and Gladion were streaming it too – but she’d yawned and shrugged and said she wouldn’t stay up that late, and she doubted Hau would either.

Of course, she did. If Moon set her mind to something, she’d do it.

Mimikyu bundled in her lap and Primarina coiled around her, Moon watched Lillie take down the champion’s Gengar. When she won, Lillie stood there for a moment, completely still, her eyes wide, as though she couldn't believe it. And then she came to life, whooping and bouncing on her heels, her Clefairy leaping into her arms with a trill.

She was interviewed in Ranseigo – she was really good now, almost fluent, with just the slightest accent that made Moon’s heart twinge in her chest.

“The Alola champion is really inspiring to me,” Lillie said, her face still pink with exertion, a stray blonde hair sticking out behind her ear. “I – we spent a lot of time together, in Alola, and I learned a lot from her.”

Moon supposed that was her. The Alola champion, Lillie’s mentor and inspiration.

Not Moon Suzuki, her friend, her –

Moon turned the TV off.

#

Lillie sent postcards from her travels, almost constantly. They were always beautiful, a message on the back written in lovely cursive Unovan, sometimes little tentative scribbles of Ranseigo, getting better and better with each card. Moon kept them in a box under her bed, bound together in a ragged elastic band.

Moon never wrote back.

Well, that wasn’t true. Moon wrote back lots. Pages and pages of messy handwriting, trying to explain feelings that were too big and messy to fit on the page – hell, that felt too big and messy to fit in her entire body. The problem was she never sent them. They always sounded so stupid, reading them back. She couldn’t imagine Lillie reading them.

More than that, she couldn’t imagine Lillie looking at her in the same way. She wouldn’t _be_ that strong girl who protected her any more. She wouldn’t be the hero Lillie looked up to.

So Moon threw them away, or bundled them up and shoved them into a corner of her rucksack, promising she would get around to sending them.

After Lillie won her championship title, Moon expected her to come home.

If she was honest, she’d been counting on it. After that whole stupid embarrassing mess with Red and Blue a couple months ago, she had a lot to say to Lillie. Not all of it very nice, but sometimes the things we need to say most aren’t.

Instead, Moon received postcards from Johto. A pretty picture of the Olivine City lighthouse, with a note from Lillie on the back – she’d gotten on another board and went further away, not ready ot be back yet, she said.

Lusamine still wasn’t _well_ , after all. She couldn’t come back until mother was well.

Moon tore that card in half and dumped it at the bottom of the bin.

#

The day after her thirteen birthday, she went to Red and Blue’s house to pick up her present from them. She knew for a fact they will have gotten her one, as much as Blue complains about her being a brat who treats his house like a hotel, and however much Red scowls at her when she steals the remote. They do that, but they still always have her favourite tea for her and Blue helps her with her _kalocais_ homework and Red joins her on her more dangerous training expeditions.

If someone was holding a knife to her throat, she would admit that they were almost like family. A little bit. Even if that seemed stupid. And even though it was probably just because it was the only place aside from home she ever spoke Ranseigo anymore.

But nobody was holding a knife to her throat so like hell she was saying that.

Only Red was home. From what she could figure out from Red’s notes and miming, Blue off at some fancy party. Red has obviously ran away the second the first champagne cork popped.

“I’m here for my present,” was the first thing that came out of her mouth. Red shrugged and stepped aside to let her in, pointing towards the kitchen. It was a little package – wrapped in silver paper dotted with little gold Exeggutor – and Moon tore it open in no time at all. Red had barely even managed to boil the kettle for tea.

“Oh, thanks!” Moon said, unfolding the dress. “Though I’m guessing Blue picked it?”

Red nodded, completely shameless, and then pointed at the wrapping.

“And he stuck you with the wrapping,” Moon surmised, entertained. Red set down a cup of tea and sat next to her at the kitchen island as Moon chattered about the birthday party they’d had last night. How Gladion had snuck her and Hau a beer each and Hau had started falling all over himself immediately. How Mom had baked her a cake and tried to draw a Mimikyu on it, but it came out so badly it ended up looking rude but everyone just laughed about it. How Professor Kukui and Burnet had given her a signed post of the “very mysterious” Masked Royale, and who did they think they were fooling anyway. How she’d called her Dad, and the two of them had talked for a long time, Moon sitting on her bed with Rotom hovering in front of her, Dad’s face tired bur smiling, filling up the whole screen.

Red didn’t really do much other than nod or occasionally shrug. He never looked at her as she spoke, but that was fine. That was just the way he was, and you could always tell he was listening.

They’d drained the whole pot of tea between them when Moon finally got to the topic that had been itching at her.

“Lillie sent a present too,” she said, voice quiet, and fetched it from her bag. A box of _yatsuhashi_ – not even the fanciest stuff, just what you’d find in any train station souvenir stall in Ecruteak. Red’s mouth twitched when he saw it.

“Right!” Moon said, laughing. “She totally thought it was fancier than it is. There was a note too, about how much fun she’s having in Johto. She went to the Tin Tower, did the whole tourist thing and rented a yukata and everything…”

Moon swallowed thickly, thinking of what it would be like to be back – well, not _home_ exactly, but much closer to it, taking Lillie to places from Kanto and Johto she remembered. How bright Lillie’s whole face became when she was learning something new. The way she always looked at Moon like she was the strongest person in the universe. And how that always made Moon _feel_ like the strongest person in the universe.

What a huge gap that left when she went away.

Red tapped his fingers on the surface of the kitchen table.

“Yeah, I’m okay,” Moon said, because she refused to cry over this. She spent so long crying about this when she’d moved into Red’s spare room, it was just pathetic to still be at it. She’d moved on. She _wanted_ to move on.

She took a breath.

“I’ve decided to get over it,” she said. “I’m not going to – you know, she’s my friend and that’s fine, but I’m going to stop being so _weird_ about her.”

Stop thinking about her so much, stop wondering if she looks different, if she’s taller, stop being angry, stop being sad, stop imagining talking to her, imagining arguing with her, imagining –

She shook her head.

“I’m not doing it anymore,” she said, hugging Mimikyu to her chest.

Red just glanced across at her and pulled out his phone. Moon settled herself in for a long wait with a sigh. She’d suggested to Blue, once, that they should all just learn sign language. She’d been pretty pleased with the idea, even learned to sign her name, but Blue just shook his head. Said something about how if that was what Red needed or wanted, Red would have said something by now.

For her part, she was sure it would make life easier, but well. Red was Red, and she couldn’t and wouldn’t change that.

Eventually, Red held out the notes app on his phone to her.

_Good to move on._

_But impossible to change how you feel right away. Don’t get frustrated with yourself._

Moon raised an eyebrow at him, lip curling.

“Speaking from experience there?” she said.

He flicked her in the arm.

“Ow, hey!” she said. Mimikyu giggled, shaking in her arms.

#

Hau had actually put on a tie.

“You look ridiculous,” Gladion told him, hands shoved into the pockets of his hoodie, his considerable height slumped against his Silvally.

(Moon would never ever tell him, not even to tease, but he looked more and more like Lusamine every day, and sometimes when he smirked she felt something cold pierce her stomach, even though it was him and she was safe and she was safe and she was safe and –)

“C’mon, it’s a special day!” Hau said, glancing down. “Tutu said I looked handsome in it.”

“Maybe if you learned to brush your hair and tie your tie properly,” Gladion replied, shaking his head. She had to admit, Hau’s tie looked much more like a hangsman’s noose than a tie.

“I did brush my hair,” Hau said, hand going to his bushy ponytail. “I just don’t slick it down with gel like you.”

He untied the tie and tried again, making an even bigger mess of it. After a moment, Gladion sighed and stood up, stepping over to him.

“Here,” he muttered, taking the tie and knotting it neatly, patting it down against Hau’s chest. His hands slid up and straightened the collar as well.

The sight made something twist in Moon’s gut. They were always like this with each other. After all, they were each other’s rivals, not Moon’s, that much had became clear during their journey. They made each other better.

“Thanks,” Hau said, uncharacteristically quiet.

And Gladion was still _here_.

“Don’t expect it every time,” Gladion muttered back.

It was just so _unfair_.

“Thought we were here for Lillie,” Moon said loudly, clutching the stupid banner tighter to her. Mom and Kukui had insisted. They had all come to Moon’s house last night and painted it – ‘ALOLA LILLIE’ in big letters, with an Exeggutor drawn by Hau on one end and a Clefairy by Gladion on the other.

“Her flight just touched down,” Gladion said, checking his phone, Silvaly resting its head on his shoulder. “She’ll be coming to the arrivals gate soon enough.”

“Awesome! C’mon, Moon, let’s get this show on the road!” Hau said.

“The banner, now?” she said.

“Sure, we don’t want to be mid-unfurl when she comes through the gate!”

Moon sighed. Mimikyu dropped down from Moon’s shoulder as they unfurled the banner, holding it up in the air.

Despite herself, Moon’s heart pounded in her chest, right up to her ears.

It’ll just be nice to see her, after all this time, she told herself. She was all grown up. She’s the Champion of Alola! And she’s over it! She’s not hiding at the league any more, or in Red’s house. She’s not even having nightmares. She was in school again and – okay, well, she’s not at the top of her class but she’s making solid Cs, aside from her As in gym and _kalocais_. More importantly, her championship was still intact, her trainer skills sharper than ever.

She was the damn strongest person in Alola, and she can handle seeing Lillie again.

Even if Lusamine was on her heels. Even if there were a lot of conversations they needed to have. A lot of things Moon should have said but didn't.

“There she is!” Hau bellowed, hopping up and down on the spot hard enough to rattle the banner (Gladion covered his face with one hand).

It took a second for Moon to see her. She’d been expecting a smaller version of Lusamine, tall and slim and porcelain-pale.

To her great surprise, Lillie hasn’t gotten any taller. In fact, Moon might stand a few inches above her now, and that makes something crumble in her chest. She’s tanned, with a thick waist and freckles across her cheeks and bare shoulders, her pale hair tied up in her old ponytail.

Her expression is the same as the first time she saw her. The uncertain little frown, her slim hands clasped together, eyes looking back and forth as if for help.

And then she turned, catching sight of Moon and the others and the banner, and she lit up, running towards them, calling out something Moon can’t even make sense of.

Moon felt rooted to the spot, her hands tight and numb around the banner pole. She watched Lillie scoop Gladion up into a tight hug, strong enough now to lift him off the ground. Hau threw his half of the sign down with a clatter and grabbed her as well, the two of them twirling around and laughing, leaving Moon standing with a half-wilted sign.

“Moon,” Lillie said, the first word Moon has registered in a while. She forced herself to smile as Lillie moved towards her, every step so certain. She’s as golden as the sun now, from her hair to her skin to the confident smile on her face. She reached a hand forward, but when Moon just stared, like an idiot, clutching a banner she never even wanted to hold in the first place, she dropped it down by her side.

“Good to see you,” she said. Moon nodded, tongue stuck to the roof of her mouth, but Lillie only giggled.

“So you’re still as stoic as ever,” she said, and then looked around at everyone. “Um. So. Mother is…on her way.”

“I see her,” Gladion said quietly.

If it took Moon a while to spot Lillie, it took her an age to spot Lusamine.

An middle-aged woman with a scarf around her head, protecting a sparse few wisps of hair (Moon remembered the postcard where Lillie said Lusamine’s hair had fallen out and she remembered laughing, meanly, but it’s not funny any more), came approaching her. A Ralts in an orange service Pokémon vest toddled by her side (Moon remembered the postcard where Lillie said that Lusamine needed to have a Ralts around her to stop her mood swings and keep her calm but Ralts aren’t strong Pokémon, anyone could knock that out and then Lusamine would be -).

“Hello,” Lusamine said, voice paper thin. “It’s been a while.”

“Nice to see you again, mother.”

“I’m glad you’re better, Ms Lusamine,” Hau said.

For a second, the absurdity of it all threatened to knock Moon off her feet. Was this how they talked to a woman who tried to kill all of them? As though she were a Ponyta with a limp on the mend.

Oh, yes. She supposed she could ask Lusamine how she enjoyed Goldenrod City. Or if Saffron City was more to her taste. As if she was meant to be glad Lusamine was alive and getting better and –

There was a clanking as the banner hit the ground.

Gladion turned.

“Moon?” Hau said. “Wait!”

Moon didn’t want to wait. She’d been waiting long enough.

She ran, Mimikyu tight in her arms.

#

Toucannon’s feathers were warm under her cheek, refreshing against the cold air of Alola’s upper skies. Moon laid there, arms tight around Toucannon, Mimikyu nuzzling against her.

It wasn’t legal to go flying on an unlicensed ride Pokémon, but what were the Alolan police going to do? Fine her? She had money to burn.

Arrest her?

Ha, fat chance. With Lusamine back on Alolan shores, Moon was the main line of defence she had. It wasn’t as though any of the adults could be depended upon to protect the region.

She glanced around, wondering if one of the others would be up looking for her.

Nothing.

She supposed Lillie was always more important. They’d be eating malasadas with Lillie and Lusamine right now. Maybe Gladion would pull Moon aside and explain to her, in that careful deathbed voice Moon hated, about the way Moon had broken down not long after Lillie left. As though that was everyithng she’d been for the last few years, like she hadn’t been doing really _well_ and -

Toucannon let out a squawk, and Moon realised she was pulling out feathers.

“Sorry boy,” she muttered to him, giving him a gentle pat on his beak. He responded with an inquisitive chirp.

“I know. We can’t stay up here,” she said. Toucannon would get tired and the air was too thin to stay up here for long. She could go find the others and make up an excuse. Say there was a stray Ultra Beast that had turned up on some obscure corner of Poni Poni Island she needed to dispatch. She had to leave for that kind of thing all the time.

Plus, bringing up the Ultra Beasts – the fact they _still_ kept pouring through into Alola, that they were _still_ dangerous – in front of Lusamine would be fun. She wondered if the woman even knew that Moon was still cleaning up her mess.

Then she pictured Lillie’s face, seeing Moon say something so petty and nasty and _un-heroic_.

No. She couldn’t do that. No matter how satisfying it would be.

She had a reputation to keep up, after all. She was _strong_. She was a _protector_.

Moon burst into a fit of giggles, that deepened and grew tighter, until she was wiping her eyes and had to take a shuddering breath.

“Toucannon, go higher,” she said, because she could, because she wanted to, because who would _stop_ her.

Toucannon glanced back at her but acquiesced, catching a wind with a flap of his wings and drifting higher.

The small buildings of Heahea City shrank to dots of colour beneath them. The sea, vast and glimmering, stretched out around her, and she could make out the other islands of Alola, the mountains and paths she’d walked a hundred times. All the places she’d fought battles, some for herself, but mostly to defend this person, or this town, or this Pokémon.

She saw Exeggutor Island, the thin shapes of the Exeggutors moving. She wondered if she looked hard enough, she would see that little cave where she and Lillie sheltered out of the rain.

“Higher,” Moon ordered.

Toucannon faltered, torn between loyalty and his own good sense. It was a mean thing to do. It was a thing _bad_ trainers did – giving their Pokémon confusing orders. Moon had always been a good trainer, though, and that was probably why Toucannon trusted her enough to obey.

The clouds soaked her through, the cold air wonderfully ice-sharp against her lungs. She felt wonderfully dizzy, distant from all the things in Alola that still had a grip on her. Toucannon seemed to have gotten hotter, as though trying to warm her through, and Mimikyu shivered and hung onto her with dark tendrils.

This far away, Moon thought, she could finally be completely safe.

She closed her eyes, head fuzzy and limbs relaxed, and she did not even notice herself beginning to tip to the side, or Toucannon’s wing beats beginning to slow.

Mimikyu shrieked, clinging to both of them with all of his might, and Moon saw a flash of orange, and that was all.

****

“Yeah, she’s here! She’s fine, she’s fine, had a doctor come round immediately. Just…no, Red caught her. Of course he did. Should have seen him, never seen him so scared – yeah. I don’t know. When she wakes up…”

Moon woke slowly, finding herself bundled into a bed (fresh-smelling, as though nobody had used it for a long time), looking up at a ceiling she would recognise anywhere.

She bolted upright.

“Toucannon!” she called out, looking around for her Pokéballs, her bag, anything. She was in the same dress she’d been wearing when she went to meet Lillie, but her purse was nowhere to be found. Mimikyu squeaked and emerged from under the bed, leaping up into her arms and cuddling in close.

“Mimikyu, I’m so sorry,” she said. “Where’s Toucannon, I –“

The bedroom door slid open (and there was something about the Kanto-style doors that made her just want to cry, and she knew that was stupid, but she couldn’t help it).

“You gave us a real scare, kid,” Blue said, rubbing a hand through his perfectly coifed hair.

“Where’s Toucannon?” Moon repeated, because she would just die if something that happened to him. “And the rest of my Pokémon?”

“Relax, they’re fine,” Blue said, and pointed to Mimikyu. “You should really thank that little terror. Managed to recall Toucannon and hold onto your Pokéballs.”

Moon breathed out, but the relief quickly gave way to a hot wave of shame.

“I did something stupid again,” she said, trying to make it sound self-depreciating, but it just came out small and pathetic.

To her surprise, Blue only snorted.

“You’re fourteen,” he said, as though that was an adequate explanation. Moon was about to argue that that wasn’t good enough when footsteps stampeded down the stairs above her. Red’s Pikachu darted into the room, followed quickly by her master. Red didn’t have his hat on and was only wearing one sock, his face white.

“Hi,” she said, and that was all she managed to get out before Red darted forward and hugged her.

“Urgh, get off me!” she blurted out, embarrassed by the fuss. Really! Red was supposed to be like this all-powerful ultimate trainer, not her mother. He released her immediately and stepped back. Blue quietly slipped an arm around his waist.

“How did you even find me?”

“You’re lucky he did,” Blue said, tone sharp. “Your friend – the cheery one with the ponytail, not the moody one with the awful bangs - texted us, saying you’d run off upset. This guy over here hopped onto Charizard and shot off right away.”

Moon couldn’t help but think that was not much of an explanation, but she had more important things to worry about.

“They’re not here, are they?” she asked. If Hau was here, she would have heard him shouting by now. Red shook his head.

“We – well, Red figured you wouldn’t want anyone yet,” Blue said, shrugging. “Besides, I’m not about to let a bunch of kids take over my house. You can see them when you go home.”

She tensed, biting down on her lip. Blue sighed.

“Which doesn’t have to be now,” he said. “Your Mom said it’s fine if you stay the night. Just…don’t get all _comfortable_ again, y’know?”

“I might sleep on the couch anyway. Sleeping in this room again would be horrible.”

Blue stared at her for a second and then snorted. Well, tact had never exactly been her strong suit.

“Glad you think so much of our interior design,” he said. “Look, I’m making dinner. Come out and have some…juice or something. You’re probably dehydrated.”

“I can tell you just don’t want me to sit in here by myself,” she grumbled, but complied.

On the way, Blue and Red did that weird annoying thing couples did where they had a conversation just by looking at each other (her parents _used_ to do that). Blue went off into the kitchen, making some flimsy excuse about finishing up, and sent the two of them off to set the table.

Now she knew _that_ was a flimsy excuse. She knew fine well the two of them ate on the couch and out of their laps, everything piled into one bowl. They did not _set the table_.

“I know you’re just keeping me busy,” she grumbled, because she hated being _handled_. It had been a while since it felt like grown-ups were _handling_ her, but it remained familiar enough.

Red looked across at her and shrugged, tossing over a set of bamboo placemats.

“These still have plastic on them,” she complained, but started unrolling them and laying them out anyway. Red gestured to where they kept the rice bowls, spoons and chopsticks, and left her to sort it out. She sighed, but was too tired to protest. Besides, doing something so boring was comforting, in a way. Mimikyu hopped onto the table to watch her.

She picked out the fanciest-looking stuff, just because she knew it would annoy Blue a little bit. By the time Red returned with a tray of drinks, the table was all set. He handed her a juice and sat down, opening a can of soda.

“I guess you want me to talk about it,” she said. She’d rather not. She felt so _stupid_ now. If she could wave a magic wand and make it so that she’d never done it at all, she would. Even everybody pretending it never happened would be better.

Red shrugged.

“You do,” she accused him.

He nodded, but then made a gesture. Probably saying ‘Only if you want’, but her head was throbbing and her throat was dry, and she was in no mood for charades.

“Look, you’re going to have to write it down,” she snapped. “I’m not Blue. I can’t read your mind.”

She sucked down a mouthful of juice, face going hot as Red looked at her, a little disappointed but mostly hurt.

“Sorry,” she muttered, voice half-muffled by her glass. “I just – Lillie came home today. You probably knew that.”

He nodded carefully, and pulled his phone out of his pocket. He wrote quickly this time, clearly having been holding onto what he wanted to say for a while.

 _You weren’t ready_.

“No duh.”

_It’s okay._

_But you shouldn’t have put your Pokémon in danger. You’re better than that._

To her own surprise as much as anyone else’s, the shame rose as a hot wave, filling her eyes with tears. She scrubbed at her eyes with her sleeve, swallowing over and over, but it didn’t do any good. She sank into the seat next to him, too embarrassed to look at him.

“I know! I know, that was –“ she said. “Just…Lusamine was there. And seeing Lillie was going to be hard but as soon as I saw _her_ I just. I felt like everything was happening again, almost.”

It sounded stupid when she said it like that. Of course it wasn’t happening again. Lusamine was no longer the power-mad head of the Aether Corporation. She wasn’t fused to an Ultra Beast and trapped with her in an alternate dimension. Hell, she didn’t even have her Pokémon any more – she’d had her license revoked and all her Pokémon returned to Professor Kukui for safe-keeping.

She was just a sickly old woman. Not a threat to anyone. Least of all Moon.

“But if something does go wrong...it’ll be my fault, won’t it?” she said, voice tiny and cracking. “I’m the champion, I’d have to protect everyone. There’s nobody –“

She fell silent, too embarrassed to finish the sentence. It was true, though. Her Mom wanted to take care of her, but Mom always just talked about how _well_ Moon was doing and how proud she was. She couldn’t disappoint her by going running for help.

Kukui wanted to help too, but he was weaker than her by a long-shot. She crushed his team every time he turned up at the league. How was he supposed to protect her?

Red nudged her gently on the shoulder, offering his phone again.

_Felt like that before._

_Why I left. Partially._

“Well, it’s just – “ she began, and then shook her head. “I’m the hero. I’m always the hero. If I wasn’t that nobody would like me any more.”

_We would._

“Shut up. You two don’t count,” she muttered.

_Why not._

“I don’t know. You just don’t.”

Red huffed with laughter.

“I just…” Moon said, tilting the glass in her hands and watching the liquid slosh back and forth. “I still don’t understand why Lillie cares about – about _her_. She shouldn’t have a second chance. She should be in jail.”

It was a horrible thing to say, but now she’d said it. To her surprise, Red didn’t look in the least reproachful. Instead, he nodded, gaze very serious.

She supposed he understood better than anyone. None of those Team Rocket idiots he dealt with as a kid ever got put away – all of them got away scot-free. But Red didn’t have to see _him_. Didn’t have to smile and pretend it was fine.

“I know it’s not my choice,” she said, mostly into her glass. “But I don’t want to see her. I don’t want to see her _ever_.”

Red wrote quickly this time.

_Tell Lillie._

“What?” Moon said. “I can’t do that! She – she’s the one who suffered the most from her.”

_So?_

“So I have no right,” Moon snapped. “If Lillie can be strong enough to face her, I should – I should…”

_She made you suffer too._

_You can’t choose what Lillie does._

_But you can choose whether YOU want to see her or not._

“You make it sound so simple,” Moon said, folding her arms and leaning back on her chair.

_It is._

Moon laughed.

“It’s not that easy.”

_I didn’t say it was easy._

_Just simple_.

_Not the same thing._

Moon supposed he was right about that.

“I’ll think about it,” she muttered begrudgingly. They fell into silence, Moon fiddling with Mimikyu’s stitching and Red rubbing Pikachu’s ear. There was a crashing from the kitchen and then the door slid open, revealing a slightly flustered-looking Blue, clutching a basket of rice.

“Alakazam is such a controlling cook,” he muttered down, and shot a glower at Red. “It’s your fault for encouraging her to get into it.”

Red shrugged. Blue put the rice on the table and flicked his partner on the ear.

“Don’t shrug at me. You weirdos just been sitting here in silence the whole time?” he asked.

“It was nice until you came in,” Moon said quickly. Blue clutched his chest, feigning injury, as Alakazam followed him in, levitating a bunch of steaming dishes. A spicy smell accompanied them, making Moon’s eyes water immediately.

“Alakazam’s cooking will burn your mouth off, so be careful, kid,” Blue said carelessly, waving at Alakazam to set the dishes down.

“Does she even eat it?” Moon asked, tilting her head at Alakazam. As soon as the table was set she vanished with that odd _pop_ psychic Pokémon made when teleporting.

“She just likes the process,” Blue said, and took a seat. He looked at Red, and apparently managed to have some kind of meaningful exchange just with that. Grabbing a serving spoon, he leaned over and filled her bowl with rice, setting it down in front of her.

“So,” Blue said, in that weird, uncomfortable tone he used when he was trying to Be A Grown-Up at her. “Are you, y’know, less worked up? I know this guy’s probably been talking your ear off with his advice.”

She laughed despite herself.

“Yeah,” she said, serving herself some vegetables. “He’s actually pretty good at it.”

Red looked bemused by the compliment.

“Oh, trust me, I know,” Blue said, pouring sauce on his tofu. “Nice to have somebody who’ll actually believe me when I say it.”

They started talking about nothing in particular, both of them laughing at Red’s response to the spicy sauce, Blue explaining the new challenge they were setting up at the Battle Tree.

Moon still wasn’t sure what she would say to Lillie – if she plucked up the courage to say anything – or how she would feel tomorrow. But, for that evening, she felt safe.

**Author's Note:**

> [Moon, over a picture of Red] You are my Dad. You're my Dad! Boogie woogie woogie!


End file.
